We’ve heard what the talking heads in the United States think of the nuclear deal being brokered with Iran, but what do the Iranians think? A report by Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, the University of Tehran's Center for Public Opinion Research and IranPoll.com shows that a majority of Iranians support the deal.
The Lausanne Understanding is the preliminary deal reached on April 2nd, the full text of which can be found at the U.S States Department’s website. 57% of Iranians are in support of the deal, and only 15% are in opposition to it.
This is helped by the fact that 94% of Iranians believe that developing a nuclear program is either very important (83%) or somewhat important (11%) to the country as a whole. 40% of respondents replied that the nuclear program was the country’s “most important achievement” in the recent past, with the next most popular answer, military power, only receiveing 12% of the answers.
One interesting point is that 73% of Iranians believe that the Iranian nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, an opinion reinforced by the fact that 69% of Iranians believe that nuclear weapons are contrary to the principles of Islam. Support for Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaties (NPT), has also grown in the past years. Support for NPTs has grown from 68% in 2006 to 81% of Iranians in October.
Iranians also support a nuclear weapons free zone including “both Islamic countries and Israel” by a large margin, with 62% ‘very much’ supporting and 18% ‘somewhat’ supporting.
Optimism is growing in Iran with 55% of Iranians believing that within one year of a deal being reached, there will be a tangible improvement in the Iranian people’s standard of living. This optimism extends to the deal itself, with 49 % believing it is “somewhat likely” for a deal to be reached and 21% believing it is “very likely” that a deal will be reached.
Further Reading:
"Iran Nuclear Agreement Meets With Public Skepticism" by Pew
"Only 11% of Americans see Iran favorably" by Gallup
"Why don’t Americans like theIran nuclear deal?" by CNN.com
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